Easy Vegetable Soup

Happy Monday! I don’t know where you are, but we got our first very unexpected snow this weekend, and with it came highs each day that were below 65F, which has kind of been the temperature every day all fall. It also got down to 26 degrees one night, so you know we were losing our minds.

This isn’t necessarily a new recipe – I posted it a few years ago and we make a quick version of it several times per year. I made this yesterday for a family we are friends with who are ALL sick, and Beck shocked me by demanding a bunch of this soup for dinner. Beck doesn’t like new things, doesn’t like foods mixed, and is generally finicky about suggestions of what she eats, so I was thrilled that her entire dinner was literally vegetables.

When I made this last time I used flour to thicken the soup slightly and served it with spinach for extra nutrition. This time I used all fresh veggies (but you could definitely sub frozen or canned) and let the potato act as a thickener. I also used really basic measurements, one of everything, basically. I cut up everything really teeny (smaller than in these pictures), let it simmer for 30 minutes to cook the potato, and we were off to the races.

This is vegan EXCEPT for the Worcestershire sauce when made with vegetable stock, or you can use chicken stock or even beef if you have them and aren’t a vegetarian. To be truly vegan, just skip the Worcestershire sauce and add a little bit more sauce, no biggie.

I typed yesterday’s method for you to bring this recipe up to the front of your mind – ignore the sad old pictures. This is PERFECT for cold days but also so healthy that it’s a nice balance to some of the heavier things we are eating this time of year. Make a pot this week and enjoy it for several days!

In a large soup pot, add the olive oil, celery, onion, and carrot over medium-high heat. Stir for 3 minutes to soften, then add the garlic and green beans. Stir for two minutes, then pour in the stock and water. Add the tomatoes, crushing them into smaller pieces with your hands as you drop them into the soup.

Stir the soup, then add the diced potato, soup, and Worcestershire sauce. Taste the soup, and add more salt to your preference (it may be a lot, the potato will soak up salt as it cooks).

Cover the soup, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer the soup for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until the potato is cooked through. Taste one more time and add more salt until the soup is very flavorful.

I cut everything very small for toddler purposes, and because the soup cooks faster if the vegetables are in smaller pieces. The cook time is approximate; when a potato is tender and cooked through the soup is ready to eat.

Don't be shy with salt! You may have to add it at several different points during the cooking to season it properly and enough. Add a few pinches each time you taste it until it tastes very flavorful to you.